When the trailer was better than the movie - #5

It’s an old cliché—the trailers are often better than the movies. No one ever sets out to make a bad movie, however, and when a group of people sit down to decide how to market a film, they want to help this creation bolt out of the gate ahead of competition. This is not an easy job. Cutting a trailer is an art. Some films lend themselves to marketing better than others, and some films just do not preview well.

Trailers, though, have a special flare. Nutcases like me that insist on showing up to the theater at least 30 minutes before show time consider the trailers a part of the movie-going experience.

So, for no other reason than to write it down, I wanted to count down five excellent trailers that led to disappointing experiences. This is in no way meant to convey any kind of definitive list—just an excuse for me to have fun.

Number 5 – Cloverfield

America has yet to make a decent “Godzilla” movie, and Cloverfield looked like it just might deliver. The trailer is a work of brilliant marketing—released six months early, with no title. The internet went crazy with speculation, similar to the frenzy that surrounded The Blair Witch Project.

However, when the credits rolled, I felt a little shafted. Okay, really shafted. All right, fine, I hated the movie. Hated it. I think John Nolte summed it best when he observed that he hadn’t ever heard so many utterances of “that sucked” walking out of a movie.

Here’s the trailer.